A Good Deal

Every year the university puts up a big campaign for getting donations to the United Way. Today they had a 'garage sale' in the Timms Centre parkade. I stopped by there with Amelia after choir rehearsal, and I picked up some books: a picture book (Puzzle Island - It brings back memories and it's really cute), and the first two volumes of the first printing (that's right, not just first edition) of the Dragonlance Chronicles series, in excellent condition, no folds or cracked spines, just a bit of natural wear on the edges of the covers. They don't even look like they've been read before (well, vol 2's pages are a little warped, but definitely not from water stains, probably just moisture). These were $0.25 each. I was a bit disappointed not to find a matching third volume. Maybe someone bought it already.

Then we went for lunch at Badass Jack's. The wraps are really tasty, just a bit messy to eat. And they carry the entire line of Tabasco sauces (in decreasing order of spiciness: Habañero, Original, Chipotle, Garlic, Jalapeño).

I went on eBay and found this, so, as it's the only good condition copy I could find, I've bought it.

Obsessive Compulsive Attack: Dragonlance Chronicles

• 1984 Edition (This is the edition I bought, note the first-gen TSR logo, it's not the second-gen rectangular one)
  
• 1986 British Edition (Don't know about you, but the artwork for the second book doesn't go with the title too well)
  
• 1988 'Collector's Edition' in one volume
  
• 1990 Edition (This is the edition that I grew up seeing on library bookshelves. Notice the incongruity in the cover layout between the first and the other two books. This kind of thing really ticks me off, although as far as I remember, the spine design is congruent.)
  
• 1998 Annotated Edition (A honkin' huge paperback)
  
• 2000 First hardcover and paperback edition (I think they wanted to update the artwork and cover layout to match the 'War of Souls' series which has similarly styled titles - Dragons of a Fallen Sun/Lost Star/Vanished Moon - and they also reprinted Dragons of Summer Flame in this design.)
  
• 2003 Young Readers' Adaptation (I remember being surprised to see these at a bookstore, like 'huh? they have YA Dragonlance novels now?' only to find that they're abridged versions for younger readers. They have updated interior artwork, and they basically split each original novel into two smaller ones.)

And the best part of all this is? I've never actually made it through reading the entire trilogy :P It's not quite like my Lord of the Rings (ugh) roadblock, it's just the story's really long and a bit epic. A large group of main characters, but not as many 'look, here's a clash between two great humumgous armies' parts. After all, they are the novel adaptation of an actual AD&D campaign (through modules written by Tracy Hickman).